MAC2 Retrospective and Aphelion Finally

It has been quite a week. Month. Whatever. I am moving house and business across state lines and had to leave things half-finished to go attend MidAmeriCon II. Which was wonderful. And exhausting. And exciting. And would have been enough to lay me out for a whole week but I had to move right on to Toronto, where I am writing this now, for a dear friend’s wedding.

So this will be the briefest of recaps:

Everything went well. Art show. Panels. Demos. Book sales. Print sales. Everything went well. I made some new friends and reconnected with old ones. Missed David Stein who I learned broke both his legs recently. (!!!!) Once again I have come away inspired by the F/SF fandom and filled with new drive and inspiration to take my work to the next level. Don’t let the quietness fool you: my reserve is only growing while the creative output is on hold during these times of change.

But I have managed something, at least: Aphelion 2016 is finally out! The Heliopause master post is over here. Please refer to it for all the relevant links to purchase the book (electronic or print) from your preferred retailer.

So many awesome memories, but at the moment one thing stands out so that is what I will put here.

I got to speak briefly with Robert Silverberg, who I didn’t recognize as Robert Silverberg at the time because he was not wearing a suit and up on stage at the Hugos. He asked me how I got the name Ogawa. So I explained about the being quarter-Japanese thing. I then went on to explain that Goldeen was a Jewish name (from Goldenstein). He squinted at me sideways.

“I am a quarter Jewish,” I explained.

“Yes,” he said. “But from where?”

I gave a disjointed explanation about my maternal grandfather’s ancestors and their journeys around Ukraine, Romania, Crimea, their problems with the Pogroms, etc. when he stopped me.

“So you are Eastern European Jewish,” he said.

“A quarter, yes,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “But that means you’re my people.”

“I am?”

“Yes,” he said. It was then I realized who I was talking to, and was rendered speechless. Which was just as well, because he went on:

“My family is Eastern European Jews. I’ll think of you as my Japanese niece.”

I got him to sign my guest book, too.

This was Sunday night in the Marriott lobby, and as that was essentially the end of my World Con, it’s not a bad place to end this post.